


The Devil's Den

by vallahwillbemyheaven



Series: Gangster AU [16]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Hybrid AU, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-24
Updated: 2015-09-25
Packaged: 2018-04-23 05:40:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4865162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vallahwillbemyheaven/pseuds/vallahwillbemyheaven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'Ray’s so very fond of cramped, dark spaces. ;)-Edgar'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Devil's Den

Being Ray meant dealing with a lot of shit. A growing list of things Ray had to deal with included, but was not limited to: the guys’ extreme fondness for petting his ears, not being taken seriously by targets because he’s a ‘Harmless rabbit hybrid’, and having to save everyone’s asses on a near daily basis.

Not that it really mattered to Ray in the long run, because the tiny, pesky things got washed away by the adoring 5 boyfriends he had. Or, it did usually. They had all gotten into some big argument over something incredibly stupid; Gavin’s feathers. It had escalated, a good half of them had stormed out, and now Ray found himself taking a walk on a brisk morning in Austin, trying to figure out just how in the hell that had gone badly so fast.

It went from Gavin’s feathers being found everywhere, to Jack not cleaning out the bathroom after he groomed, to complaints about finding Ryan and Geoff’s horn shavings everywhere, to shit that Ray didn’t hear because he left to get out of the tense atmosphere. He regretted it now, wishing he had a light jacket instead of just his thin t-shirt.

Ray had been out walking for a good half an hour when he was suddenly slammed into an alleyway. He found himself shoved against a wall by two horns that connected to Edgar, a creepy grin resembling that of Ryan when he was doing an interrogation on his face. Edgar seemed to have brought a wolf hybrid and a mountain lion hybrid with him and Ray would have been lying if he said he couldn’t feel the panic rising in his chest.

Ray nearly jumped when Edgar tilted his head a little more; the longhorn hybrid kept his horns sharp enough to skewer someone with them, which Ray only knew because he had seen it happen during a fight. Ray was pretty sure his heart was visibly leaping out his chest right now. He gulped, trying to quell his fear, gripping onto the brick wall behind him when Edgar moved yet again, standing up straight with a hand pinning Ray to the wall by his chest.

“You’d think you were dying of a heart attack the way your heart is beating right now, Ray,” Edgar chimed, his voice cheery but with hidden malice in it. “How has everyone been since the last time I visited?”

Edgar was talking about nearly three months ago, when he attempted to skewer Jack and Geoff like a kebab. He was getting very persistent in killing everyone Ryan loved, or at least attempting to. That thought had Ray tensing up and fearing for his life. Ray’s nose twitched out of fear, thinking that Edgar was going to had the two predator hybrids he brought with him rip Ray apart.

“We’re just fine,” Ray said through teeth gritted out of fear. His eyes were wide and he was doing his best to keep his breathing relaxed. Edgar’s smirk sent a shiver through the rabbit hybrid and he gnawed on his lower lip as subtly as possible.

Just because Ray was a criminal did not mean he had gotten over instincts, or fear of being absolutely ripped apart and the only thing that was really running through his head was “Run, run, go, don’t look back, call someone” but out of fear of being caught, Ray couldn’t move.

“Isn’t that…pleasant,” Edgar spat out, tilting his head down and nudging Ray with a sharp horn. “I thought we might go for a little drive, how bout?” Edgar was clearly not asking, his little minions moving in closer just to prove that to Ray, who nodded only by the force of will of wanting to live.

He was ‘gently lead’ by way of sharp horns and predators to a car hidden behind a corner in the alley way. He was brought around to the back of the car and thrown into the trunk by the wolf hybrid without warning, sending the poor rabbit hybrid into panic that it took him a minute to come down from.

The trunk was slammed shut, causing Ray to jump as he was shut into total darkness. If Ray had been dumb, he would have run. As soon as Edgar wasn’t blocking his path, he would have fled, and at this point Ray was thinking it would have been better if he had. Edgar was sadistic and merciless and Ray suddenly became aware of the fact that he was probably going to die in some horrible, twisted, cruel way and he started shaking, leg twitching as he panicked for the umpteenth time that day.

After what seemed only seconds to Ray, due to his zoning out, the car stopped and the trunk was thrust open, temporarily blinding the already confused 24 year old as he was pulled out and basically dropped onto the ground. Edgar was leering over him as he picked himself up off the ground; eyes squinted as he adjusted to the bright light.

“Well, then, Ray. I think we’ve kept the dogs waiting long enough, hm?” Edgar asked, one of his henchmen pulling Ray off the ground and shoving him towards the building they had pulled in front of. It looked small and made Ray’s eyebrows furrow.

“Dogs?” Ray questioned, a shudder running throwing his body as he was shoved towards the door, causing his steps to be stumbled. Edgar nodded at him with a terrifying grin creeping over his face and Ray shuddered again as they entered the building.

Right at the entrance was a staircase that Ray was ‘persuaded’ to go down. It led to a sprawling underground of the building, all rooms that looked like torture chambers to Ray. He even saw some unfortunately familiar equipment as they passed by one of the chambers.

Ray ended up being locked in a chamber at the very end of the hall, which basically had the starting gates you see at dog races with some very angry dogs behind the doors. He pressed against the glass wall of the cell as soon as he noticed, legs shaking, nose twitching, fingers trying to find something to grip.

Ray didn’t realize it, but he was whimpering. He could see the dogs, happy to get a chance to tear him to shreds, and the only thing keeping them from doing that was a wooden gate. He would have begged for his life if he had tunnel-visioned on his fear. Ray tensed as the gates opened and suddenly five dogs are attempting to tear him apart.

He was dragged to the ground almost immediately, screaming as a dog clamped down on his leg. Instinctively, he covered his head and ears with his arms, screaming even louder as two dogs started ripping at his arms. He tried to curl in on himself as the dogs attacked, which only caused to make them more vicious.

He managed to get away for a very short period of time, quickly backpedaling into a corner as the dogs followed. He curled up, shaking in the corner as the dogs began their attack again. One of the dogs got a very good grip on his leg and actually dragged him out into the open, sending the other four dogs to bite out his sides and his arms and one managed to get his ear. He didn’t even realize he had been screaming the entire time.

The dogs suddenly looked up and then ran off back behind the gates and they shut. Ray whimpered, lying on the floor as the bite marks bled. Tears ran down his face as he tried to avoid sobbing. He realized then that Edgar wasn’t going to let him simply be pulled apart, but instead planned to draw out his death. Maybe he’d be merciful and just let him bleed out on the floor.

That didn’t seem to be the case, as two new hybrids, big cats, walked in with first aid supplies and got around to fixing Ray up. There were more bandages than actual skin showing as Ray was dragging out of the room into was seemed to be a holding cell. It basically just looked like a storage unit.

As soon as he was alone, Ray found the darkest corner to curl away in, shaking in both fear and pain. He reached up to feel at his injured ear, shuddering when his hand came away wet. He let the hand drop down, knowing there was nothing he was going to able to do about it right now.

Ray became aware he couldn’t really see, and out of habit went to check for his glasses. His fingers went through what should have been the lenses and he sighed, pulling off the broken things and tossing them away from himself. He was surprised he hadn’t noticed that the glass was broken, but given the circumstances, maybe it wasn’t all that shocking.

Edgar had sent them the video of Ray being used as a doggy chew toy three weeks later. In between the incident with the dogs and Edgar actually sending out the video, he had been slowly tearing away at Ray and taking pictures of it for a later date. During one particularly panic-inducing session of just locking Ray into a dark closet, Edgar had recorded his screaming. Most of it was just beating up on poor Ray; his face was so mangled, it probably with at least be permanently damaged. His ‘cute, little nose’ was busted up in three places and one eye was swollen shut, but most of his wounds Edgar had actually had tended to.

Edgar, of course, didn’t send the pictures or the recorded screaming just yet, just the video. He would have delighted in catching the reactions through a telescope or something, but he did want to get back to Ray.

Watching the video ended up causing Gavin to hide behind his wings, not wanting to see it. Michael and Jack both ended up at different levels of growling and hissing; Geoff was watching Ryan as he got this wide-eyed, guilty look on his face.

Gavin was the first one to leave the room, doing so in a flurry of feathers and flapping that sent him upstairs and Michael was quick to follow him, picking two feathers out of his hair as he tramped up the stairs after the bird hybrid, tail flicking angrily as he walked.

Michael found Gavin on his stomach lying on the bed, shaking and sobbing quietly. Michael quickly wormed his way in between one of Gavin’s outstretched wings and the plushy bed, pressing closely to his side and grabbing Gavin’s closest hand.

“Are we gonna be able to get Ray back, this time?” Gavin asked tentatively after a few minutes of silence. Michael nodded; his chin pressed into Gavin’s shoulder where it was rested.

“Yeah, don’t worry…We can get him back. And then we’ll kill that son of a bitch,” Michael reassured, rubbing his thumb over the top of Gavin’s hand. He honestly didn’t know if they could, either, but no one outright says that in these kinds of situations.

Sleep that night was maybe slightly restless; Ryan got up after two hours of being accidentally kicked by Michael in his sleep, Gavin’s wings wouldn’t stop moving and twitching and Gavin was crying in his sleep, Jack ended up wrapping himself around Gavin’s sleeping form, and Geoff got up after only three hours of sleep and fell back on alcohol to deal with the current issue.

The same thing happened a week later when Edgar sent them the first batch of pictures, only there was much less hope this time around. They had tried everything they knew to do to find Edgar, but he had figured out how to be sneaky, it seemed. Gavin couldn’t find him on anything.

The weird habits that everyone had were getting significantly worse out of stress. Ryan’s smoking was starting to become a constant, Geoff’s stress drinking had started up again [‘What happened to just Thursday?’ ’Ray did.’], Gavin had gotten very twitchy and bad about keeping his wings under control, Michael was getting to be very testy, and Jack was starting to withdraw. Ray had only been gone nearly two months and it had already knocked the rock stabilizing them out from under them, causing it to teeter constantly from just dumping them.

Two weeks later, they got a second set of photographs of Ray after his eye had swollen shut, along with the recording of Ray’s screaming, along with a little note.

Ray’s so very fond of cramped, dark spaces. ;)-Edgar

They didn’t bother to listen to it, Michael making a show of tossing it off the roof of the building, watching it fall with a glare. A small, angry smirk came over Michael’s face when it hit the ground, sure it had shattered.

The next week, more pictures. The week after that was another recording. Three weeks after that, a video. Then, there was absolutely nothing for 15 weeks. It got to the point where they were all pretty sure Ray was very, very dead.

Ray had been gone for 26 weeks when the Gents woke up one morning to find their bed devoid of Gavin and Michael. The recent events caused the Gents to be wide awake, paranoia ripping through their systems as they rushed to get out of bed. Ryan got caught in the sheets due to his horns, which caused Geoff to get caught in Ryan and send both of them rolling to the floor with a thud.

Jack paid them no mind as he calmly got off the bed, tail swishing as he did, and headed down the stairs. He was greeted with the sight of an absolutely wrecked living room, and he would have stopped dead in his tracks if worry didn’t have him wanting to hunt down Gavin and Michael. By the time he had determined Gavin and Michael definitely weren’t hiding somewhere, Ryan and Geoff came tumbling down the stairs, having somehow gotten tangled up through their horns.

“Well, fuck,” Jack growled, tail flicking agitatedly as he glared at a bare wall with claw marks running through the paint. “So, uh, somehow, it appears Gavin and Michael got ripped out of here without us being disturbed. I’m going to say it is time for us to involve Joel, or something.” Jack looked over to where Ryan and Geoff were detangling themselves by shaking their horns free. “How did you do that?”

“No idea,” Geoff grunted, yanking himself free and clipping Ryan’s horn in the process. Ryan reached up to feel at his now rough horn and groan. “Bigger issues, though. What’d you say? Involve Joel?”

“Yeah. Police scanners. Track him down with information Gavin may not have been able to get,” Jack said, letting out a very lion-like huff of air as Geoff considered.

Geoff was gnawing on his lip and nodding his head minutely as he weighed the pros and cons of involving the cop that they had on their side. He nodded after a minute. “Yeah, I’ll call him. Explaining this situation is going to be fun,” Geoff sighed, reaching into his pocket and bee lining for the exit of the penthouse.

The guilt that had been resting in Ryan’s eyes for 6 months seemed to get heavier when Geoff left and the bull hybrid got to get a good look around. Jack frowned as he watched Ryan droop, quickly stepping over the mess of the room to hold him.

“It’s not your fault, you know. Danger comes with the job,” Jack whispered, leaning his head back to avoid Ryan’s horns as the other shook his head.

“This is like mafia kind of danger though. Our worst worry is supposed to be like, getting shot during a heist. Maybe Gavin pissing off someone big. But not torture and crazed psychos,” Ryan whimpered, voice cracking when he spoke. Jack shook his head against the other’s shoulder.

“This isn’t something we usually have to deal with, no, but we can deal with it, alright? We can save them.”

“What, like how we saved Ray?”

“Ryan!” Jack shot back, leaning away from the other and frowning. “We don’t know if Ray’s dead or not. We could still potentially save him.”

“Potentially.”

“Alright, save the sobbing and clinging to each other for later. We’ve got a corrupted cop to find information to. We still have the first video?” Geoff burst in, sliding his phone back into his pocket. Jack nodded his head over to the closet, where he had hid it away, along with the pictures. Any recording of Ray’s voice had been destroyed by Michael, but Jack had managed to save the pictures and videos because he felt they might need them. Geoff went over and got them out, very careful to not look into the box.

Joel arrived not two hours later, taking the box and leaving after having a very tiny conversation with Geoff that wasn’t important. Ryan and Jack had decided to go sit in the bedroom, not wanting to be near the mess of the living room. Geoff went to join them after Joel left.

“How did they go missing without us fucking noticing?” Ryan grumbled, head held low in a mixture of anger and grief. Jack shrugged.

“I have no idea. It was definitely a struggle to get them out, so we should have heard it. We should have heard Michael at least. He’s not exactly the quiet type,” Jack answered, looking to Geoff when he sat down on the bed and immediately leaned on the lion hybrid.

“Fucking dicks, guys. This is going to be rough,” Geoff whined, looking at Jack with a frown. Jack just nodded.

For the next two weeks after Gavin and Michael disappeared, they got a picture a day. One of Gavin hung up by hooks going through his wings, one of Michael being sprayed with a hose, one of Gavin’s wings being used as shooting targets, the list went on. 14 pictures, 14 days, later, Joel finally got a lead on where they could be.

“Looks like it’s a bomb shelter,” Joel said, handing them the map with a large red circle of the area. “It’s secluded, but people who live in the area have sent in calls about screaming nearby. Cops haven’t looked into it, but I can bet you that’s where they are.”

Geoff nodded and thanked him, taking the map and sending Joel on his way. The three of them were quick to leave for the building, gunning themselves up on the way out. It took an hour for them to arrive, due to traffic in the city and then also trying to find a tiny building in a secluded area.

They basically threw themselves out of the car, storming into the small upper building to see none other than Edgar standing on the other side, a grin resting on his face.

“Well that took you a long time. Nearly 7 months? That has to be the slowest any of you have moved. Honestly, I’d expect better work out of you three,” Edgar chimed, his tail swaying from side to side casually.

Jack was stood behind Geoff and Ryan, scanning the room. Body guards everywhere, but only a few of them gunned. Geoff had pulled his pistol out, but wasn’t holding it up. They all seemed to be waiting.

Edgar grinned, making a motioning with his hand that led to the Gents being ganged up on…for about a minute. There was a loud growl that came from the underground part of the building and then a bullet went through a hyena hybrid that was getting close to Jack. That had the Gents and Edgar staring at the staircase, although Edgar seemed to understand what was happening better than the Gents did.

Michael Vincent Jones tackled another one of the bodyguards who was near the stairs, biting him on the arm and quickly firing into his skull. His ears were flat to his head and he was growling, looking like he had just been through a rainy hell without a towel. The Gents were left to blink away their confusion as Michael quickly launched himself at yet another bodyguard who was heading for him.

Geoff was the first one to snap out of it, sending a bullet through a wolf heading for Michael. Edgar looked not so pleased with this new development, ears flicking with the same annoyance resting on the longhorn’s face.

Jack made his way over to Michael as soon as it was safe, wanting to check up on the ‘cub’s’ injuries. Michael was surprisingly okay, soaking wet and angry, but okay. He wasn’t all there, mentally, more focused on the gunfight that had broken out.

There was some commotion as Ryan and Edgar butting heads, having met in the middle and locked horns. Ryan had the advantage of being tall, but Edgar had the advantage of full, sharp horns. They were locked, angrily glaring and circling as Geoff ended up in a gun battle with two other hybrids.

“Ray and Gavin…Still down there…Gotta help them,” Michael hissed, watching Edgar and Ryan with very intrigued eyes. Ryan was shoving the other longhorn towards and wall, but kept getting fought off because he had to move back to avoid being driven through when Edgar made a clever move.

Jack only nodded. “We will, we will. How are you here?” he asked, more concerned with Michael than the battle happening. Jack would have shown off his roar and fangs if he felt like it was necessary.

Michael held up a hand, nails broken. Of the few that weren’t broken, the nail had gotten sharp. “Picked the lock. Ray and Gavin can’t move on their own. Gavin’s wings are fucked up, Jack,” Michael said quietly, completely focused on Ryan as the taller longhorn Shoved Edgar into a wall with a grunt of force. There was the crack of horns against a wall, a scream, and Michael’s eyes going wide. When Jack finally glanced back, Ryan had snapped Edgar’s neck with a jerk of his head.

Geoff, at the same time, had crushed someone’s rib cage with a head butt, and those who hadn’t died had fled by now. The adrenaline had faded out of Michael’s body and he slumped against the wall, flashing Geoff and Ryan a tired smile from the ground.

“Gavin and Ray are in that last cell down the hall. Door’s open. They just can’t walk,” Michael said tiredly, having to rest his head on his shoulder. Jack frowned and quietly picked him up like a bundle to take him out to the car as soon as Ryan and Geoff were down the stairs.

Michael didn’t protest being sat in the car, especially when he saw Geoff and Ryan making their way outside; Geoff holding Ray and Ryan holding Gavin. Gavin’s wings were mangled and Ray looked like he had been thrown into a pit of hell, which probably was far from the truth, but they were still breathing.

The drive to the hospital was quiet; aside from Gavin whimpering when his wings moved. Michael had passed out in the car, but Geoff was trying to make absolutely sure Ray didn’t fall asleep because it looked like he could very easily have a concussion.

The Lads were as gently as possible brought into the hospital, Gavin and Ray brought into the ER and Michael, after being woken up, was given a brief checkup. He needed sutures where his left ear connected with his scalp due to some minor tearing, but it was done and over with after a brief amount of time. According to the doctor, however, Gavin and Ray were going to be in the hospital for some time and probably going to need help for a long time after, even.

They four men went to see their boyfriends as soon as possible, and Jack did not miss the way Ray tensed up when he saw both him and Ryan, but it was only for a brief moment before he relaxed and gave a small smile.

They conversed until visiting hours ended; Ryan being the last one out of the room. Gavin had fallen asleep a long time before, which really just left him to say goodbye to Ray.

“Ryan? Visiting hours are way over,” Ray said quietly, smiling when the other pecked him on the lips.

“Yeah, I know, I just don’t want to leave. I’m glad you’re still breathing,” Ryan admitted, standing up from the chair.

“Yeah, me too.”


	2. Misery is just a Noun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a traumatic experience, doctors will tell you there’s only so much you can do to help.

After a traumatic experience, doctors will tell you there’s only so much you can do to help. They tell you offering a safe space for the person recovering is the best thing you can do. Listening and talking it out is the best thing to do. So what happens when the only safe space you can offer in under the arm of a criminal?

This was the kind of question that Geoff, Jack, and Ryan had to ask themselves now. Ray had nearly gotten torn apart and beaten to death so many times in a period of six months no one was sure how he was still breathing. Within only two weeks, Gavin’s wings had been turned lame and the doctors weren’t sure if he was ever really going to be able to use them again. Within fourteen days, Michael went from a cat hybrid who loved the pool to someone the Gents couldn’t even convince to stand under the shower head.

Gavin was lucky that most of his trauma resulted in only physically injuries and not ones of his minds, but that wasn’t to say having his wings torn up hadn’t changed him. Gavin was always looking at his back whenever he thought no one was looking, a miserable frown plastered across his face only to disappear as soon as anyone looked up.

Michael was the one who insisted he was absolutely fine, ignoring the fact that he couldn’t even shower without shaking. Someone had to be in the bathroom for him to even take a bath, and he’d always be anxious to get out as soon as he was in. Usually Jack kept watch over the Lad when he was bathing, able to convince Michael to stay in the water a little longer by offering to wash his hair.

Ray was by far the worst off of the three Lads. He was constantly jumping at his own shadow and Jack couldn’t deny the way Ray tensed up whenever there was a flash of fang. Ray’s nightmares always caused him to throw himself off the bed, curling up in the corner and protecting his head. It would be dogs some nights, fists the next, and once or twice it was the feeling of being in a tight enclosed space. Ray jumped when his ears brushed something or when there was the sound of a barking dog outside and some days would find Ray simply curled up and crying. Geoff had gotten the best at dealing with those days.

Ryan, of course, could only find himself to blame for all of the misery that Edgar had caused the six of them. On quiet days where no one was doing anything, Jack and Geoff would find Ryan sat in a chair, holding his head dejectedly. On a few of those days there had been tears running down Ryan’s face.

Jack was still left trying to figure out how Edgar had gotten Gavin and Michael out of the penthouse without them being heard. Michael had told him rather quickly about the fight that had left the living room in shambles that day, how he was hissing and screaming his whole way out. Jack just couldn’t figure out how they hadn’t heard.

Geoff was the only one running any money for the five of them for three months; while his boys all needed some time to recover, they still needed money, after all. He was careful with what he did though, not wanting to give everyone another reason to worry.

The worst part about all of this was Michael arguing with Jack about how “he was god damn fine, you fuck!” or how at every loud noise cause Ray’s ears to shoot up and him to look around fearfully. If Edgar hadn’t already been killed by Ryan, Geoff would have crushed him under his horns.

But the past was in the past and what needed to be focused on now was recovery. Recovery that would take them forever. Recovery that may never put them back at the place they were because Michael was always going to be at least slightly scared of water and Ray was always going to be jumpy and Gavin may never be able to fly again, but it was a recovery none the less.

If only there was something else that they could call that recovery. By definition, recovery was a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength, and that’s just not what was happening here. They were never going to be perfectly normal, although I guess you could say it came with the job of being criminals.

There was always going to be a hidden state of misery in their lives after that. No matter how many smiles came across their faces or how close they got to normal, they would never be normal. Ray would have nightmares about dogs and Michael would have nightmares about drowning and Gavin would always cringe a little when someone brushed a wing.

At the end of the day, however, when the Lads were all curled up around each other on the couch playing some stupid video game and Ryan was in the kitchen watching Geoff cook and Jack was watching the Lads from the counter to make sure they didn’t hurt themselves, things got pretty close to normal again. Maybe that was recovering for them.

After all, recovery is just a noun; it can be given so many more definitions than the standard one.


End file.
